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Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

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Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#31

Post by Jeff_Brown »

RobinUS2 wrote: post #9
digitalsushi wrote: post #4

We may not be ready but we may as well get ready. I would strongly prefer to work with skeptical people again. Skeptics can be convinced, they just need evidence. Although I am genuinely intrigued by AI running out of things to ingest, and moving onto AI generated content. Is the snake starting to eat its tail?

How are we going to provide that evidence? And make sure that evidence is actually true, instead of AI generated? Send them a link to a wiki page that has been mutated by an AI bot updating it? ;-)

Eye witness testimony, public key encryption, reputation matters. No more anonymous viral "information".

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#32

Post by wongarsu »

RobinUS2 wrote: post #9
digitalsushi wrote: post #4

We may not be ready but we may as well get ready. I would strongly prefer to work with skeptical people again. Skeptics can be convinced, they just need evidence. Although I am genuinely intrigued by AI running out of things to ingest, and moving onto AI generated content. Is the snake starting to eat its tail?

How are we going to provide that evidence? And make sure that evidence is actually true, instead of AI generated? Send them a link to a wiki page that has been mutated by an AI bot updating it? ;-)

How have we done this so far?

The only two answers I can come up with are

A) independently verifiable facts, for example you can apply the scientific method to the hypothesis that the earth is not flat (make predictions that should follow from that, and test those experimentally); or

B) data provenance. If some crackhead says that the US government is conducting brainwashing experiments you might discard that, if the government answers a Freedom of Information Act request with documentation about brainwashing experiments conducted by the CIA then you have good reason to count them as evidence. And you spread the word about this by showing the proof to a reputable newspaper who write about it, or writing a book and publishing it at a publisher known for fact-checking what they publish.

Anything that isn't independently verifiable or has a chain of provenance is already hearsay. In the age of social media we got used to basing a lot of decisions on hearsay, so maybe we have to dial that back. But AI being better at generating hearsay doesn't mean it gets better at creating evidence.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#33

Post by rajamaka »

swexbe wrote: post #25
softbt wrote: post #17

Really don’t like the idea that we will act as interfaces for the AI, I honestly believe it will only many the majority of people lazier and dumber. I’m also incredibly shocked that no one is talking about AI as a friend/companion, that has to not be good for you in the long run. Humans need real human connection, AI is too artificial for that (duh). Having AI friends will be equivalent to consuming fast food instead…

Good comparison. An AI companion will never talk back or tell you that you're wrong. Kind of similar in my mind to how fast food restaurants won't serve you anything that's too "hard to swallow".

An AI companion most definitely could be configured to talk back or adopt any possible personality trait.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#35

Post by Jeff_Brown »

dale_glass wrote: post #7

I don't think we're mentally ready for social media, even. What something like Twitter can inflict on a person when it goes wrong is absolutely unprecedented, and we still haven't adapted to it. Think that for instance going to the cinema, watching a movie, walking out and venting to a friend "Boy, this one sucked. $ACTOR_NAME did a really bad job with this one" is a perfectly normal thing to do. But move that to Twi…

Or give you the illusion that someone's listening, compellingly enough that you neglect the work of making friends in the real world.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#36

Post by jfengel »

ssnistfajen wrote: post #21

That post-truth world had already arrived ~6-7 years ago. Social media algorithms powered by primitive iterations of weak AI was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world and the effects are...not great.

Stephen Colbert coined the word "truthiness" nearly 20 years ago, providing a name to a trend that had been well underway years before that.

"Well, anybody who knows me knows that I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914?"

I see it as a progression from 24-hour news media to social media to a complete abandonment of "truth" in public discourse. Of course the core concept is ancient and had been in play all along, but technology has really amplified it and made it increasingly personal. AI may push it over some kind of edge into the abyss, but only because we've spent three decades willingly readying ourselves for it.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#37

Post by BizarreByte »

softbt wrote: post #17

Really don’t like the idea that we will act as interfaces for the AI, I honestly believe it will only many the majority of people lazier and dumber. I’m also incredibly shocked that no one is talking about AI as a friend/companion, that has to not be good for you in the long run. Humans need real human connection, AI is too artificial for that (duh). Having AI friends will be equivalent to consuming fast food instead…

> Having AI friends will be equivalent to consuming fast food instead of healthy home cooked meals growing up

A person who is starving will do better with fast food than with no food at all.

It's far from ideal, but for some people this will make their lives marginally more tolerable.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#38

Post by thfuran »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #10
digitalsushi wrote: post #4

We may not be ready but we may as well get ready. I would strongly prefer to work with skeptical people again. Skeptics can be convinced, they just need evidence. Although I am genuinely intrigued by AI running out of things to ingest, and moving onto AI generated content. Is the snake starting to eat its tail?

I wonder if the rise of skepticism will actually lead to people decreasing their use of the internet. Once the internet is full of crap (like 1000x what it currently is) and everyone realizes nothing is real, or can be trusted. Will people turn away, and start reading books and talking to neighbors again. Could the new renaissance be talking to other humans again, because face-to-face personal contact would be only f…

Why wouldn't the books be AI-generated too?

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#39

Post by civilitty »

softbt wrote: post #17

Really don’t like the idea that we will act as interfaces for the AI, I honestly believe it will only many the majority of people lazier and dumber. I’m also incredibly shocked that no one is talking about AI as a friend/companion, that has to not be good for you in the long run. Humans need real human connection, AI is too artificial for that (duh). Having AI friends will be equivalent to consuming fast food instead…

I’m working on a startup that’s training LLMs to be authentic so they can simulate human affection and it’s actually working really well!

The key is humanity’s ability to pattern match: we’re actually pretty terrible at it. Our brains are so keen on finding patterns that they often spot them where none exist. Remember the face on Mars? It was just a pile of rocks. The same principle applies here. As long as the AI sounds human enough, our brains fill in the gaps and believe it’s the real deal.

And let me tell you, my digital friends are putting the human ones to shame. They don’t chew with their mouth open, complain about listening to the same Celine Dion song for the 800th time in a row, or run from me when its “bath time” and accuse me of narcissistic abuse.

Who needs real human connection when you can train an AI to remind you how unique and special you are, while simultaneously managing your calendar and finding the optimal cat video for your mood? All with no bathroom breaks, no salary demands, and no need to sleep. Forget about bonding over shared experiences and emotional growth: today, it's all about seamless, efficient interaction and who says you can't get that from a well-programmed script?

We’re calling it Genuine People Personality because in the future, the Turing Test isn't something AI needs to pass. It's something humans need to fail. Pre-order today and get a free AI Therapist add-on, because who better to navigate the intricacies of human emotions than an emotionless machine?

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#40

Post by figassis »

dale_glass wrote: post #7

I don't think we're mentally ready for social media, even. What something like Twitter can inflict on a person when it goes wrong is absolutely unprecedented, and we still haven't adapted to it. Think that for instance going to the cinema, watching a movie, walking out and venting to a friend "Boy, this one sucked. $ACTOR_NAME did a really bad job with this one" is a perfectly normal thing to do. But move that to Twi…

I never understood why this makes social media hard. If you leave the theater and then go around town shouting that movie X sucked and actor Y was really bad, you might also get some responses and maybe show up on the news a a crazy person, prejudiced, or some other adjectives. So you don't, you tell your friends, some of which might call you an idiot for not getting it, and other might agree. If you tweet it out, you're potentially asking the entire planet to weigh in, well, have fun with that.
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